Dear Frederick & Marjorie,

Thank you so much for publishing the Poem, "For Your Information," (POV, August 1, 2005). I was walking out of a local business when I grabbed a newspaper and was quite surprised to see it.

At the time I wrote it, I was so angry for being denied unemployment benefits after being laid off from my job. I had worked for over seventeen years and decided to return to college fulltime. Without just cause, the local adjuster denied me so I appealed. At the hearing, the review examiner was so rude and in so many words told me that NOTHING I said would influence the outcome. I suppose she would have much rather I attend MCDI than Mount Holyoke College. (95% employment rate for graduates!)

The first tactic was intimidation. The next was outright racism behind closed doors. I thought to myself how many times has this happened to others. To make a long story short, I appealed her decision to the Board of Review and won.

Completing my degree was not easy, but every time I thought about this one incident, it propelled me to study and excel. Isn't it ironical that after completing my degree at Mount Holyoke--and later, an MIT fellowship--that I was hired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to work in the SAME "lily white" office?

There was little that I could do about the years of injustice I know had occurred, but from that day I promised God that I would HEAR every case and give EVERY person due process under the law.

Beverlyn Blanchard